… murder allegedly meant to stop her from “spilling beans” over looting of Covid-19 funds.
Mohloai Mpesi, Hopolang Mokhopi & Mathatisi Sebusi
ANOTHER gruesome assassination has once again dumbfounded the country.
The community of Matala Phase I in Maseru is particularly shell shocked following the murder – in cold blood- of the Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Disaster Management Authority (DMA), ‘Makhotso Mahosi, who was gunned down at her home last Sunday night.
Ms Mahosi was sprayed with multiple bullets by unknown assailants on that fateful night and died on the spot along with her 11-year-old son while the family’s house helper is battling gunshot wounds in hospital. Her husband, who was not at home at the time, survived but he remains deep in grief. He could hardly master any words when the Lesotho Times visited the Mahosi home this week.
According to the police spokesman, Senior Superintendent Kabelo Halahala, Ms Mahosi was in her living room together with her son and their helper (nanny) watching television.
“They heard someone knocking at the door. He was the driver of Ms Mahosi. A few minutes after his arrival, two heavily armed men popped in.
“They dragged the driver outside at gun point and harassed the deceased (Mahosi)…….. saying they want money. They pushed her to her bedroom and trailed her back to the living room where she was shot. Unfortunately they met their untimely deaths,” Senior Superintendent Halahala said.
The driver later returned with the police but Ms Mahosi and her son had already died while the maid survived with gunshot wounds on her legs. She is being treated at an undisclosed location for her security Sen Supt Halahala said investigations were still ongoing and pleaded with anyone with any information on the suspects to tip off the police.
The driver, who was dragged off first by the killers, is presumably the first key witness to the crime. We could not establish what he has told the police with Sen Supt Halala only saying investigations are ongoing.
No arrests had been made at the time of going to print last night.
The horrendous incident has sent shock waves across the Matala village, whose residents could never have anticipated such a horrific incident in their area. Many said they now fear for their lives and safety.
When the Lesotho Times arrived at the scene of the murder, our reporters were met outside the Mahosi home by the deceased’s husband, who was away from home when the cold-blooded assassins barged into the home, instantly killing his wife and son.
Mr Mahosi was so visibly traumatised that he could not respond to questions posed to him, only telling the Lesotho Times that they were busy cleaning the house following the tragedy.
One neighbour, who lives less than 20 feet from the Mahosi home, told the Lesotho Times that she did not hear any gunshots only to learn of the shooting later after it had happened.
She said the whole village was in utter shock, and seeking to understand why any human being could be so utterly cruel to another. All the community wanted was to understand what Mahosi had exactly done to deserve such callousness.
She narrated how heart wrenching it was to see the lifeless bodies of Ms Mahosi and her son being bundled into the police van and being taken to the mortuary. And to see blood dropping from the vehicle.
“We want to know why they killed her…Why, why, why, take the life of such a young innocent soul.…This is a very painful experience, we are shocked. We can’t stop asking ourselves, why?”
Ms Mahosi had earlier received a visitor who left late in the evening, she said.
“It is all very suspicious… There was a visitor, who, according to information doing the rounds, stayed there until late in the evening. It makes one wonder whether this visitor was trailing Mahosi for her eventual murder.
“Maybe the visitor was communicating with the perpetrators through the phone. Why did the visitor leave that late? And why did the killers arrive shortly after the visitor left? Common sense suggests the visitor might have been communicating with these killers,” she said.
A nanny at an adjacent home to Ms Mahosi’s said they too had not heard any gunshots.
She said they had been approached by a police officer who asked them whether they heard any gun sounds. They hadn’t, she said.
It all raises questions about whether violent criminals are getting sophisticated to use gun silencers.
“He (the police officer) invited us inside the house of Mme Mahosi…. There were two bodies of a mother and a child lying on the ground. It was a grisly sight,” she narrated.
“From there people started coming in and other members of the police arrived with a vehicle, they took the bodies of the child and the mother to the mortuary. It was a painful scene. I could not close my eyes that night to sleep. I have never seen anything like this my whole life and hope I never encounter this again…..”
She added: “A pool of blood was all over the floor. It looks like they were not shot while seating. The mother’s body was lying on top of the child which suggests she was trying to protect the child.”
Since the beginning of this year, Ms Mahosi had been battling a litany of court cases raised by the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO). She stood accused of enriching herself with kickbacks from tenders awarded during the Covid-19 pandemic after the government had declared a state of emergency, empowering state entities to bypass normal tender processes.
In January 2023, she rushed to the High Court to seek the return of M500 000 the DCEO had earlier seized from her parental in Mafeteng, claiming the money was proceeds of crime. Ms Mahosi claimed the money belonged to her savings society.
Ms Mahosi was further accused of receiving a bribe from one business tycoon, Baba Ketso, to fast-track his payment after completing a M9million tender for the construction of a road from Tšifa-Li-Mali to ‘Malesaoana in Leribe.
As her woes mounted, Ms Mahosi found herself back in the dock alongside the former Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftainship, Home Affairs and Police, Lefu Manyokele, and a young entrepreneur Pitso “bikerboy” Ntsukunyane in August this year.
The trio was charged with allegedly conspiring to unlawfully award a M4 million tender for the repair of the Seboche Bridge in Butha-Buthe District to Bikerboy’s LL Construction company.
In September 2023, Ms Mahosi was grilled along other DMA officers by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the queries raised by the Auditor General over the looting of Covid-19 funds. She had been due to return to the PAC to give more evidence. The Auditor General has reported the misuse of hundreds of millions of public funds in corrupt public procurement processes during Covid-19.
It is suspected Ms Mahosi could have been on the verge of “spilling the beans” and exposing senior officials and politicians she claims had directed her to award tenders to connected people. As her own legal woes mounted she had allegedly wanted to implicate those who had given her specific instructions, authoritative sources told this publication.
But PAC chairperson, Machabana Lemphane-Letsie, this week told the Lesotho Times it did not make sense to link Ms Mahosi’s killing with her appearance before the PAC.
She said she disagreed with that linkage because there was nothing that Ms Mahosi had said before the PAC that could be characterised as too sensitive to put her life in danger.
“This is just propaganda meant to mislead and scare people from appearing before the PAC. Mahosi had many cases including the one before the DCEO and the High Court,” Ms Letsie said.
is nonetheless authoritatively informed that Ms Mahosi was going to try and vindicate herself in some of the egregious cases of corruption during Covid-19 by claiming she was acting on specific directives of senior government officials including ministers and principal secretaries.
Her murder comes barely a month after senior Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) official, Major General Ramanka Mokaloba, had pleaded for state protection of witnesses appearing before the PAC.
Asked about the possibility of protecting such witnesses, Ms Letsie said the PAC did not do any investigations, but only reviewed the Auditor General’s annual reports. It summoned ministries and government departments to respond to the Auditor General’s findings. Protection of witnesses thus fell out of the PAC’s purview.
“Issues of protection of witnesses are the security sector’s responsibility not Parliament. How can we protect people who come before PAC while ourselves are not protected?” she asked.
It seems abundantly clear though that if the lacuna on the protection of witnesses continues, the PAC might face difficulties getting the cooperation of witnesses.
The case of another PAC witness, Khahliso Soro, who was murdered shortly after appearing before the PAC in 2018 has now gone cold with no arrests since then. Mr Soro was a procurement officer in the then Ministry of Home Affairs. He had implicated his then minister, Joang Molapo, in the looting of funds at the ministry.
A report by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Advocate Hlalefang Motinyane, released in parliament this week said police had thus far failed to find any suspects in Mr Soro’s killing.
